Cambodia

New York, June 26, 2009--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the sentencing today of Hang Chakra, editor-in-chief of the opposition Khmer-language daily Khmer Machas Srok, to one year in prison stemming from his reports on alleged government corruption.

New York, December 18, 2008—For the sixth consecutive year, Iraq was the deadliest country in the world for the press, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in its end-of-year analysis. The 11 deaths recorded in Iraq in 2008, while a sharp drop from prior years, remained among the highest annual tolls in CPJ history.

New York, July 14, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of journalist Khem Sambo and calls upon Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to immediately launch an independent investigation into the killing. CPJ is concerned that Sambo may have been targeted in reprisal for his reporting on government corruption.

A journalist with the opposition-aligned Khmer-language daily paper Moneaseka Khmer, Sambo was shot twice while riding his motorcycle with his 21-year-old son on July 11 in the capital of Phnom Penh, according to international and local news reports. He died later in the hospital. His son was also shot and killed, the reports say.

New York, July 14, 2008--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the murder of journalist Khem Sambo and calls upon Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen to immediately launch an independent investigation into the killing. CPJ is concerned that Sambo may have been targeted in reprisal for his reporting on government corruption.

A journalist with the opposition-aligned Khmer-language daily paper Moneaseka Khmer, Sambo was shot twice while riding his motorcycle with his 21-year-old son on July 11 in the capital of Phnom Penh, according to international and local news reports. He died later in the hospital. His son was also shot and killed, the reports say.

June 15, 2008

Posted: July 14, 2008

Dam Sith, Moneakseka Khmer
RELEASED

Cambodian publisher and editor Dam Sith was released from Phnom Penh's Prey Sar prison on June 15 after being detained for over a week on criminal defamation and disinformation charges for an article published in his daily Khmer-language newspaper Moneakseka Khmer, according to news reports.

New York, June 10, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the detention of Dam Sith, editor-in-chief of the opposition-aligned, Khmer-language daily newspaper Moneakseka Khmer.

Dam Sith was arrested on Sunday by plainclothes police at a car wash and interrogated for several hours at the national military police headquarters in the capital, Phnom Penh. A criminal court charged Dam Sith the same day with defamation and disinformation in connection with an April 18 article on a speech by opposition politician Sam Rainsy, according to a joint statement from the Cambodian Human Rights and Development Association, the Cambodian Center for Human Rights, and the Cambodian League for the Defense and Promotion of Human Rights (LICADHO).

New York, May 1, 2008—The Committee to Protect Journalists is gravely concerned about the latest in a series of anonymous threats received by Radio Free Asia (RFA) investigative reporter Lem Pichpisey in Cambodia.

On April 10, Pichpisey’s 11-year-old daughter found six AK-47 rifle bullets placed neatly in a row in front of his family’s house in western Battambang province. According to RFA Senior Editor Daniel Southerland, such a warning could be construed as a death threat in a Cambodian context. Pichpisey was investigating a drug trafficking case involving a casino, a high-ranking police officer, and the murder of a drug suspect in the western border town of Poi Pet, according to Southerland.

FEBRUARY 15, 2008
Posted March 5, 2008

Khuon Phlay Vy, aka Sar Keo Virak, Sakal
THREATENED, VICTIM OF AUTO ACCIDENT

Khuon Phlay Vy, editor of the Khmer language daily newspaper Sakal, received a threat by telephone on February 15 over a story his publication ran on the same day about an illegal gambling den in Phnom Penh’s Boeng Keng Kang II commune, according to information received by the Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists (CAPJ), a local press freedom group.

Government suppression of a hard-hitting investigative report that implicated senior government officials in illegal logging represented a significant reversal of the modest press freedom gains of the previous two years.

Britain-based environmental watchdog Global Witness released the 95-page report, “Family Trees,” on June 1 and several local media groups detailed its findings, which included accusations against Prime Minister Hun Sen’s family and personal bodyguard unit. Four days later, the Information Ministry banned and moved to confiscate hard copies of the report, claiming that its conclusions could “incite political problems.” Information Minister Khieu Kanarith was quoted in the local media as saying that the confiscation “does not concern the freedom to publish and disseminate information, which the government strongly supports.”

In a country with few critical news sources, Radio Free Asia is taking on tough stories. As RFA puts the government on edge, its reporters are on edge.